Bengals' Zac Taylor apologizes for failed trade with Eagles - ESPN

CINCINNATI — Bengals coach Zac Taylor expressed the franchise's regret for the failed trade for Philadelphia Eagles edge rusher Arnold Ebiketie ahead of Tuesday's deadline.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday for the first time since the proposed deal fell through, Taylor issued a statement on behalf of de facto general manager Duke Tobin about why the move didn't materialize before the 4 p.m. ET deadline for teams to make trades the rest of the season.

«Duke was very explicit with me when he came and spoke to me about how he wanted this portrayed,» Taylor started. «I'm not comfortable doing it, but I'm going to do what he asked.

»We did make an effort to put some depth in there in place of Cashius [Howell]. As we got into it, obviously it was going to be a little more costly than we initially anticipated. He's really apologetic about it and wants to make clear [that] Philly was a great trade partner. It was on our end."

Initially, NFL Network's Ian Rapoport reported that the Bengals and Eagles had agreed to a trade that would send Ebiketie to Cincinnati in exchange for a 2027 sixth-round pick. But as the teams worked through finalizing the move, according to a source, it became apparent that Cincinnati was going to forfeit a 2027 third-round compensatory draft pick if the move was finalized. That led Cincinnati to withdraw from the proposed trade.

There was much speculation about exactly how the Bengals became aware of the pick forfeiture that was awarded because the team signed fewer qualifying free agents that left the team and signed elsewhere, particularly former edge rusher Trey Hendrickson.

There was a report issued by OverTheCap.com's Nick Korte about the draft pick loss that was sandwiched between the initial report